Gary Varner (Page 2)

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The Silence of Solitude

Ever think about solitude, and the silence that comes when you don’t speak or have noisy external influences? Not being alone or lonely, but intentional isolation to improve creativity or enjoy quality think time. Nature spoke to me in the guise of silence. The quieter I become, the more

Has My Ship Sailed?

Why do I keep writing? Why do I continue to work on embracing a creative life and spend day after day wrestling with words, having just crossed the 70th invisible benchmark of a life? Society, as least in the U.S., embraces ageism. I likely won’t find a mainstream

Cogito, Ergo Sum

Over the years, I’ve grown to love linguistics as it relates to words, their etymology, challenges to use, and the nerd-like joy of discovering new (to me) words. Of my few educational regrets is never learning Latin. Not as a great conversation starter, but since Latin can be the

When Is The Right Time?

When do you know it's the right time? How can you tell when "now" is the moment to move forward, or hold back for another, potentially more appropriate time? There are many subtle and not so subtle ways to tell. For me, it's when things converge as though choreographed by

Paper App – Minimalist Writing

Like many writers and others who work with words, the search for the elusive “holy grail” app is an ongoing process, ever the open eye for a better one to help craft thoughts, edit work, and make digital writing tolerable. My workflow goes through progressive stages, using apps suited to

Who Wants To Live Forever?

Cue the music: the beautiful, bittersweet Queen song of the same title. Originally written for the first Highlander movie (one my favs), it was spot on for that movie. It’s an interesting question to ponder, as humanity sits on the edge of medical and technological advancements that could significantly

Teeter-Totter Times

When you reach age 50 (or so I recall… it’s been awhile), you’ve hit the theoretical apex of the body's teeter-totter: Before 50, most usually experience aches and pains and other “what is that?” moments and often ignore them. Once the end of the teeter-totter tilts downward after

The Iciness of Routine

Routine is the elusive siren song that's good for us, yet we often struggle to believe in it enough to make it stick. This beguiling song is not sexy nor exotic, but oh so practical and beneficial. Without it, the hopes of any creative will simply smash into pieces upon

Camping in the Graveyard

Sometime during the evening of our lives, we become more aware of our mortality, and that of our peers, heroes, and legends from our time. I remember my dad toward the end of his life becoming more interested in scanning the Navy Times obituaries, looking for and finding those he

Addicted to Journals? Could Be Worse

There are worse addictions than acquiring too many journals and notebooks that go unloved. Doesn’t help when there are always more bright-n-shiny ones out there. I use some of what I have, but I’ll not share a photo of my back-stash else youll discover “in use” and “available